September 07, 2017

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I don't have anything to make! (... and why that's a lie)

This blog post is written by one of our Co-founders, Hari Adnani

We’ve all been there, whether you’ve been making longer than you’ve been able to walk or if you’re fresh in the field, you know the feeling of not have anything to make, or more accurately, not being inspired. From experience, I know that there’s always something to make-you just have to be inspired. How do you find inspiration? I’m glad I asked! Here are three ways to be inspired when making.

#1 An exceptional way to find inspiration is by looking around your community to see what needs fixing or what would help you or others. It could be a birdhouse (to help the birds), a custom table centrepiece (this would help make your table more aesthetically pleasing), or even a wooden chest to store toys in at your  local park.

#2 Take your hobby (or find a hobby) and contribute to its community. You can write a piece of sheet music and share it with the world, make and sell picture frames for artists or you could even make a cabinet or a series of shelves, anything to organize your making materials. This could include glue, markers, extra wood, motors, batteries, and anything else you can think of.

#3 If you honestly, truly, no way, no can do, think of something to make, there’s always a solution! On this website there’s so much to do, and so much to learn. As a matter of fact that website is the one you’re reading this on. Maker Junior! Maker Junior  is awesome! On the Maker Junior YouTube channel  there’s a ton of awesome ideas and tutorials for kits that we sell on the website. Check it out, you won’t regret it!

Thank you for reading my blogpost, now that you have inspiration, go make!

‘Till next time!

Hari

Behind the Scenes with La Machine

On Sunday the 23rd, Maker Junior visited the Space and Aviation museum where La Machine set up their massive animatronic puppets to roam the streets. Join us as we get a behind the scenes tour to learn more about these fantastic machines.

Continue Reading ->

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February 14, 2017

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Inspir › Projects ›


Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines
We had lots of fun making light up valentines over the past week. The goal was to make a valentine that could be turned off and on. Lots of great, innovative switches!
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Free Programming Workshop! Saturday February 4

Calling all inventors! Carleton University and Maker Junior

Maker Junior is thrilled to be partnering again with Dr. Audrey Girouard and her team of researchers from the Creative Interactions Lab at the School of Information Technology, Carleton University. We will be hosting a fun, free, Inventors Workshop for 9-14 year olds to explore programming in Snap with the Arduino, bendable sensors and electronics. Participants must have some exposure to programming in Snap or Scratch to participate in these workshops. During this workshop we’ll be building cardboard games and increasing the interactivity of these games with programming. All participants will have a chance to build their own inventions and share with everyone what they have created.

This workshop is funded by the Ministry of Ontario through an Early Research Award.

Workshop Dates:

Saturday, February 4, 2pm - 4pm

Pre-registration is required. 

Registration will be held at 50% male/ 50% female participation.

For more information, or if you are interested in participating in this free workshop please contact Alison at alison@makerjunior.com or 613-710-9427.

 

Making is one of the seven key aspects of Digital Literacy

Media Smarts: Canada's Centre for Digital and Media Literacy
I've been thinking a lot about Digital Literacy lately. It's something we work hard with our boys to explore. As parents, we spend a lot of time and energy focusing on safety. Quite appropriately. But are we spending an equivalent amount of energy helping them create?
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December 20, 2016

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Go-Car Challenge: More things to do with motors!

* This is an article I sent out in our March Maker Club newsletter. Have you signed up for our newsletter yet? It comes out monthly with news, events and project ideas. You can sign up for our newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/GMbrX *

The Go-Car Challenge

We know with making how important it can be to make a tight budget go far. If you're going to invest in our Educator Packs of Doodlebots, what else can you do with those motors? We've already mentioned the Bubble Maker Challenge in a previous newsletter. Something else we've done with our motors is make Go-Cars.

I got the idea for Go-Cars from one of my favourite resources, Tinkering: Kids Learn By Making Stuff by Curt Gabrielson. (Awesome book and that's a library link. It's also worth checking out the Community Science Workshop.) Essentially, with Go-Cars, you are using the same motor the Doodlebots use to make a fan that pushes enough air to make the car go.

We built these in the winter session of my Inventors Workshop at GNAG.ca. Here's what we learned:

  • Super bouncy balls on bamboo skewers worked really well as wheels
  • Putting the bamboo skewers through straws was the key to making the wheels turn
  • It was important to keep the car as light as possible
  • Cups helped lift the motor high enough make bigger fan blades
  • Make sure the fan blades scoop the air
  • AA batteries weren't strong enough - we needed to use 9V's
The Go-Car was a difficult challenge. Not everyone was successful! But when we got it working, it was really exciting!
Go-Car Challenge
Watch our Go-Car Go
Keep Making!
Alison

 

Meet a Maker: Randy Glenn

Hello!  Recently, the team over at Maker Junior, put me in charge of writing blog posts. We collaboratively decided to start a new blog series called “Meet a Maker”, where we ask makers in or around our community about how they started making and about what they make. Our first interview is with Randy Glenn.

Randy Glenn

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Free Inventors Workshop: Vancouver, June 13

Calling all inventors!

We will be hosting a fun, free, Inventors Workshop for 7-9 year olds to celebrate our first Vancouver Mini Maker Faire! During this workshop we’ll be playing games and exploring the properties of different materials alongside electronics.

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If I Built A House: Sparking Creativity with Kids

Sometimes I like to start my workshops with books that spark creativity. "If I Built a House" by Chris Van Dusen is one of my favourites.

If I Built A House by Chris Van Dusen

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